Baltimore Antique Arms Show

[Bill Murphy]

Hi, Daryl, we'll miss you. Chuck, I still recommend that visitors park in the commuter lot on the other side of the tracks from the show venue and walk to the show from behind the building. Getting out of the fairgrounds parking lot at 5:00 on Saturday is a terrible experience.

[Smoothebore]

Bill, as a recent resident of Maryland I plan to be there Saturday. I grew up in that vicinity, has it changed much since 1970?

Dave

[Bill Murphy]

No change at all. Well, I-83 is paved now, but the McDonalds is still on the corner of Timonium Road and York Road and the Loch Raven Skeet Club is still up the street on the reservoir. I have not been on your side of Fishing Bay for a while. My father in law spent a lot of time at a lodge on the top of Fishing Bay on the Transquaking. I have a friend who has a neglected RSA across the water from you in Wingate. I love that part of the country.

[Smoothebore]

Thanks Bill,
This is a beautiful place. I'm still getting my bearings. I've been spoiled for many years by mild winters and early springs in the South. I'm told I'm the fifty-eighth resident on the island. I am amazed by the peaceful quiet and abundance of wildlife. See you Saturday.

Dave

[Big D]

Bill - I stayed at a friend's house on the South shore of Fishing Bay. His family had been watermen for generations. Had an unbeleivable duck shoot with his brother-in-law, Wally Abbott, the 12-time World Champion Muskrat skinner.

[Bill Murphy]

John, thanks for the report. I haven't seen muscrat meats for sale in country stores for a few years, but I'm sure they are sold among neighbors. The show is going well. I scored a DHE #1 frame stock with #0 size skeleton buttplate and trigger guard mounted and the matching forend. The rest of the gun was destroyed by rust and was not offered. The stock is wonderful and the trigger guard and buttplate need to be restored. Does anyone know whether the #1 frame stock can be reduced and installed on a #0 frame gun? I have a great #1 frame 16 with #0 frame stock from the factory, and it is a real wand. However, I have a #0 frame 28 that needs this stock. Can it be fitted? Our friend and member Jerry Smith is displaying many neat Parkers for sale that I have not seen offered before. I saw a DH 16 Damascus offered for sale at what I considered a reasonable price, but I know nothing about the barrel wall thickness. You're on your own. It is a really nice gun.

[Bill Murphy]

In attendance are PGCA types, Bill Murphy, Kevin McCormack, Art Wheaton, Allan Swanson, James Baker, Ken Waite, father and son, Jerry Smith, "The Parker Story" authors Bill Mullins and Charlie Price, book seller and PGCA guy Tommy Hypes, and I am told Parker Pages editor Austin Hogan is in town and will be with us tomorrow. I will have a whole new list for you tomorrow night. Maybe some more news about what is available for sale.

[Smoothebore]

Bill, I have to change to Sunday for the show. The Island is having a Muskrat dinner Saturday afternoon at the church hall. I had thought it was next week, but was wrong, and I don't want to miss it. Wylie Abbott, Jr. and his wife Pam live just down the road. Pam is our rural letter carrier for the Post Office. Wylie, Jr fills in when Pam is sick. According to the book "Elliott's Island: The Land That Time Forgot", Wylie Abbott, Sr. set the world's record for Muskrat skinning in 1976 by skinning five Muskrats in one minute.

Dave